Beijing, August 11
A star-starved nation found a new sporting icon in a marksman from Chandigarh, as Abhinav Bindra shot his way to history, winning India’s first ever individual Olympic gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle event here today.

The sharpshooter lit up an otherwise gloomy day at the Beijing Shooting Range and sizzled in the finals to lift the gold, ahead of his Chinese and Fin rivals.

Abhinav entered the event as world number 17 but showed scant respect for his opponents’ reputations, pulling the rugs from under their feet.

The Indian entered the final in fourth place and then raised his game by a few notches to seal the issue.

In the all-important final, he never scored below 10 as he topped the chart with a total of 700.5, adding 104.5 to his qualifying round score of 596.

Fellow Indian Gagan Narang too almost made it to the final but was ruled out on countback. Gagan scored 595, levelled at the fifth place but lost out on a final place in countback.

Bindra simply sizzled in the final and was quick to assert himself. His first shot of the final a 10.7 saw him move to the third place and by the time he was preparing to shoot his fourth, the Indian had risen to the second spot.

A 10.6 on his seventh attempt earned him the lead and Bindra could not be toppled from the top.

Defending champion and local favourite Qinan Zhu won the silver at 699.7 (597+102.7), while Henri Hakkinen of Finland bagged the bronze at 699.4 (598+101.4).

Before the Olympics, Abhinav’s biggest success had been the gold medal in the 2006 World Championship in Zagreb, Croatia.

Abhinav did break the Olympic record in Athens but that was not enough to win a medal as his peers did even better. — PTI